Things are looking up all-over, but mostly here in Sunny Cal, not the least being the invention of a solar-powered ATV by a Hur resident.

WVU researchers are saying there is a "surge" in employment in the Mountain State since 2001 - expected to add a whopping 5,000 jobs over the next five years.

The researchers say high coal and natural gas prices and demand for residential and infrastructure construction is helping spur the economy, in addition to leisure and hospitality sectors, the Bureau of Business and Economic Research said in a report.

The Bureau said the best employment news occurred in Calhoun County, which showed the biggest decline last month.*

The job picture is getting brighter and brighter, according to the government report.

West Virginia's May unemployment rate fell nine-tenths of a percentage point to 4.3 percent, the lowest rate for the month since 1976.

Bevus Fellhinder of Hur said "If things get any better, more workers may have to be imported from Mexico.

Fellhinder is well-known in Hur for his development of a solar-powered ATV, which he uses to ride to Charleston to work at a Shoney's restaurant.

Fellhinder says the ATVs top-speed is only 25-miles-an-hour, indicating "It still has saved me a lot of money."

"I got sick and tired of listening to all that whining about high gasoline prices. People need to get off their fanny and find ways to make a buck," he told the Hur Herald.

Fellhinder said he had no problem paying his $500 heating bill in February. "I cut more wood," who said we should quit grumbling about energy company CEOs making a $25 million salary. "They're part of the American Dream, too."

He said "People don't know how to work these days."

"Those big corporations have loved those illegal immigrants, until politicians turn on them," he said
"We need to trust the government. They said we need to return to those old family-values and re-new our spirit in the work ethic."